Contents

Lesson 2: Theory

I’ve helped hundreds of artists build strong fundamental drawing skills in my years teaching both at an animation school and online.  Over time, I’ve learned what actually helps students improve and what doesn’t.  This course is built not only on that teaching experience but also on insights from cognitive psychology and vision science, so you’ll learn what actually works.

 In this course, you’ll learn how to draw a simple object convincingly.  Along the way, you’ll develop fundamental skills you can use to draw anything.  For beginners, this might be your first real win, a drawing you’re proud of that proves you can learn to draw.  For more experienced artists, you can scale the challenge by drawing a more complex object.

Drawing of object

By the end of this course, you will:

  • Create a drawing that looks like the object you observed.
  • Build fundamental drawing skills that give you the tools to draw what you see.
  • Establish effective, consistent study habits that you can apply to any topic as you continue your art journey.
  • Gain an understanding of how representational drawing works (optional if you prefer to skip theory).

You might be thinking, “I don’t want to draw some boring object, I want to draw anime characters.” Don’t worry.  I got you.  Think of drawing as a language.  This course teaches you the basics of that language, the same one you will use to draw anything, including characters.  I will explain this more in lesson 2.

How It Works

There are many ways to learn to draw, but at the core, all artists improve the same way: through repetition.  Every successful art program, no matter the approach, requires students to draw again and again until they get good at it.  There is no shortcut around this.  The role of a good course or teacher is to make this process as effective as possible.  The core of this course is understanding how the process works and using it as efficiently as possible.

We learn to draw through repetition in four stages:

  1. We begin with a goal or idea we want to express, along with a rough plan for how to express it (for example, drawing lines with a pencil or applying paint).
  2. We physically create the drawing.
  3. We evaluate the result by comparing it to what we wanted to express.
  4. We look for take aways that we can learn from the drawing. We consider what worked and what did not in the previous steps so we’ll have a better idea of what to do next time.
Stage 1: Goal The goal or idea you wish to express in your drawing and a loose plan to achieve it Stage 2: Action The physical act of producing the drawing. Stage 3: Evaluation Comparing the resulting drawing to the goal in mind. Stage 4: Take Aways What have you learned from the previous stages that you can use to improve your next attempt?

For Example:

  • My goal is to sketch an object.  I plan to do this by drawing lines.
  • I make the drawing.
  • I evaluate the result by comparing it to the real object, and I notice the bottom edge is too flat.
  • I adjust my plan and draw the object again, this time making sure the bottom edge is correctly curved.

Repeating this cycle allows both the plan and the drawing skill to improve a little each time.  This process is called the experiential learning cycle.  The goal of this course is to help you learn to draw by getting the most out of this cycle.

Maximizing the Experiential Learning Cycle

This course strengthens the experiential learning cycle in five ways:

  • Giving you a clear goal to focus on.
  • Providing theory to guide you in achieving this goal.
  • Helping you evaluate your drawings with both theory and critique.
  • Offering exercises that use experiential learning cycles to target specific skills.
  • Creating a structure that keeps you consistently applying the experiential learning cycle.

The Goal

Experiential learning works best when you have a clear goal.  Imagine shooting an arrow at a target: if you miss to the left, you know to adjust your aim to the right next time.  Without a target, you wouldn’t know whether your shot was good or how to improve.  Drawing works the same way.  Without a goal, it’s much harder to judge whether your work is successful or figure out how to improve.  

In this course, your goal is to draw your object so it looks believable.  Each study session, you will draw your object.  If your drawing looks like the object, that’s a success.  If it doesn’t, we can try to understand why and figure out how to make the next attempt better.

Theory

Theory gives you tools for approaching a drawing and criteria for evaluating your work.  For example, if you learn theory about proportions, why they matter and how to measure them, you’ll be able to evaluate the accuracy of the proportions in your drawing.  If something looks off, you’ll know how to fix it.

During each lesson, I will introduce more theory to help you refine your approach and evaluate your work. I also cover a lot more theory in my free how to draw book.

Evaluation

You can evaluate your own work by writing notes on each drawing: what worked, what did not, and how we can improve in the next drawing.  You will also benefit from critique from other artists. The course includes access to a Discord server where you can submit your work for critique from your peers.  I also offer personalized feedback as part of my mentorship.

Exercises

Just as musicians practice scales and athletes drill technique, artists can sharpen their fundamental skills with targeted exercises.  Each exercise is built around the experiential learning cycle by setting a clear goal that provides a standard with which to evaluate your result and refine your technique on the next attempt.

Exercises can be useful for targeting the weak skills you discovered during your evaluation of your drawings.  For example, if your shading looks messy or inconsistent, you can improve this skill by practicing creating value scales.  When you apply that skill to your next drawing, you will see the improvement.

Value rendering can be improved by practicing value exercises

A well-designed exercise creates a complete learning cycle.  It gives you a clear goal, a plan to follow, and a way to evaluate how well you met that goal.  You can then use what you learned as feedback to improve your next attempt.

Stage 1: Goal The exercise gives you a clearly defined goal and plan Stage 2: Action The physical act of producing the drawing. You can learn from the experience itself Stage 3: Evaluation The goal provides a clear means to evaluate your results. How well did you achieve the goal Stage 4: Take Aways What have you learned from the previous stages that you can learn on your next attempt

For example, the cross-contour exercise challenges you to draw a subject by wrapping lines around its surface to describe its form.  You’ll know exactly what you are trying to achieve as you draw, and you can judge how well your lines describe the subject’s forms and surfaces.  If the forms are unclear, you will often be able to tell why and how to correct them next time. Through this process, you gain experience thinking about form, surfaces, and how to describe them with lines.  These skills will carry over into your next drawing, whether from life or imagination.

Stage 1: Goal Describe the surface of my object by wrapping cross-contour lines around its forms Stage 2 Action The experience of paying attention to lines and forms as I describe them with lines in my drawing Stage 3: Evaluation How well does my drawing describe the surfaces and forms of my object Stage 4: Take Aways I now have more experience and a better idea of how I can describe surfaces and forms with cross-contour lines. How can I better describe surfaces and forms in my next drawing?

Exercises make great warm-up drawings.  Their clear and simple goals help you start working right away with less mental effort.  Beginning with an exercise also prepares your mind to focus on a specific skill that can carry over to your next drawing. Each lesson will include exercises to put the theory into practice.

Structure

One of the most valuable things art schools offer is a structure that keeps students engaged in experiential learning.  Students are required to put in the time and take consistent action.  Teachers set clear expectations and a schedule for when those expectations should be met.  Your classmates and teachers apply social pressure and keep you accountable.  In this course, I want to give you a similar sense of structure by providing a clear goal (to draw your object accurately), theory to help you reach that goal, and a community to keep you motivated and accountable, but the schedule is up to you.

For your schedule, set a goal to spend a certain amount of time engaged in experiential learning.  Setting a goal in terms of number of drawings finished can create a perverse incentive to finish drawings more quickly, causing the quality to suffer. 

When your goal is clear and specific, you are far more likely to stick with it. If you set a goal but take no action, you create cognitive dissonance.  The more dissonance you feel from not following through, the stronger the push to keep your commitment.  For example:

  • If you say “I will work on it later” and don’t follow through, there is little dissonance because you can always rationalize that “later” is still yet to come.
  • If you commit to working from 6 to 7:30pm on Tuesday and skip it, the dissonance is stronger because you know you let yourself down.
  • If you tell someone else that you will work from 6 to 7:30pm and skip it, the dissonance is even greater because you also feel accountable to them.

To build in that accountability, I encourage you to post your study schedule in the course Discord community.  Posting your plan creates timestamped evidence of your commitment, and it will motivate you to share your results at the time you said you would.

The assignments for this class are designed to be done in 90-minute sessions.  In my experience, 90 minutes is the optimal amount of time to get into a good flow, but not so long that you start to lose focus.  You can adjust these sessions to be shorter or longer if needed.  How many sessions you do each week is up to you, since everyone’s schedule is different.

Ideally, I recommend about 15 hours per week, made up of two 90-minute sessions a day, five days a week.  I know this level of commitment may not be possible or appealing for everyone, so feel free to scale it to fit your life.  Even doing one study session a week will lead to progress over time. The course is designed for one lesson per week, but you can move faster or slower depending on how much time you need.

Each 90-minute session starts with 30 minutes of doing the exercise in the lesson’s assignment, followed by 50 to 55 minutes of drawing your object.  The final 5 to 10 minutes should be spent reflecting and writing about what went well and what you can improve next time. If you study several times a week, you can switch up your subject to keep things interesting. Just make sure to draw your main object at least once each week.

90 Minute Study Session: 30 Minutes - Lesson Exercises, 50-55 minutes - Draw your object, 5-10 minutes w- Write and reflect

Be kind to yourself if you miss a session or life gets in the way.  It happens to everyone.  When it does, try to return to your schedule or adjust it as needed instead of getting discouraged or giving up.

Materials

This course is designed to be flexible, so you can use whatever materials you prefer.  Here are the tools I will be using in the demonstrations, in case you want to try them:

  • Digital: This is the easiest medium for demonstrations, since I can easily record the process and share it online.  I use Clip Studio Paint with default brushes on a Wacom Cintiq.
  • Ballpoint pen: A simple and inexpensive option that proves you do not need fancy supplies.  Ordinary office pens will do.
  • Conte pencil on newsprint:  Conte lets you build values quickly like charcoal but without the mess.  I prefer Conte pencil, but Conte crayon is the same material in stick form.
Digital rendering of my object
A digital rendering of my object.
A ballpoint drawing of my object.
Conte rendering of my object
A conte drawing of my object.

Keep Drawing for Fun!

Do not stop drawing for enjoyment in addition to your studies.  Think of drawing as a language.  The purpose of this course is to become more fluent, but the real purpose of language is communication.  If you have nothing you want to express, it does not matter how polished your skills are.

Drawing the things you enjoy and are passionate about will also strengthen your studies.  When you create personal work, you will naturally run into problems and discover where your skills fall short.  These moments show you what to focus on in your studies.  As you improve through study, you will see how those skills are applicable to the art you want to make.

In my experience, you need both personal work and study to improve effectively.  If you only do exercises, art can feel like a chore.  Balancing both keeps you motivated and makes the process more enjoyable. 

Lesson 1 Assignment

  1. Choose an object from around your home.  This will be the subject you draw throughout the course. If you’re a beginner, pick something simple, like the chess piece in my example.  If you’re more experienced, choose something more complex, such as a figurine or bust. There is no lesson exercise for lesson 1 so spend most of your planned study time drawing this object.
  2. Do not draw from photos. I’ll explain why in Lesson 2.
  3. Draw your object to the best of your current ability.  If you finish before your study session ends, draw it again until your time is up.  If you can’t finish within one session, continue working on it in the next. You can also take extra time if you want.
  4. Reflect on your results and write about what went well and what you could improve next time.

Optional:

  1. Share your weekly study plan in the #accountability channel on the course discord server.
  2. Post your drawing and a photo of the object in the #entries channel to establish your baseline. You will compare your future work to this drawing to see how you have improved.
  3. Share your drawing and photo in the #course-critique channel to get feedback from the community.

If you have any questions about the course, you can ask in the #course-help channel.

Lesson 2: Theory